A Christmas Tangle
by Merrianna
Summary: It's Christmas time in London and aliens are about to make life more difficult for the Doctor. Not that bring on aboard a new companion, Jack becoming immortal weren't serious enough but how do you tell the human mother of your blonde companion has become a Time Lady. Somewhere the Doctor's previous incarnations are wincing and rubbing a cheek from a phantom slap. 3rd in series
1. Chapter One: The Wonder of Christmas

Disclaimer: I don't in any way own the series Doctor Who. Those are the sole property of the BBC.

A Christmas Tangle AU: "Christmas Invasion".

Chapter One: The Wonder of Christmas

Jackie moved slowly about her tiny flat finishing the Christmas decorating. She placed a few wrapped packages under the small white plastic tree. Her hand clutched a bright red box, sitting heavily onto the cream colored sofa, she let a soft sad sigh escape. She traced over the tag with a deep pink lacquered fingertip.

"To: Rose. Love: Mum xxx… ooo…"

Jackie gave another shudder exhalation, she blinked a couple of times holding back tears, her gaze drawn as usual out the window scanning the overcast London sky, a vain hope that she'd see a glimpse of the Doctor's blue box.

A block down, at the local garage, Mickey Smith stood elbow deep diligently repairing a mini-coupe's engine. His blue jumpsuit showed smeared stains of grease and grim, reflecting the long hours of toil the young man had already work on the vehicle.

He and his fellow compatriots, filled those long hours with music, which blared ear thumping Christmas music at that moment. Mickey's ears perked however as a barely but distinct high pitched whine could be heard over the rendition of 'Wishing You a Merry Christmas.' "Hey Stevo, turn that down."

Startled by the black man's vehement order, the man next to the radio, twisted the knob to half.

Mickey knew in an instant, what and who that high wheezing grinding noise came from, the Doctor's time-space ship. He raced out of the garage, without a word to his employer and mate's, towards the ship's usual landing spot on the Powell Estate.

At the same time, Jackie also heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS arriving. Elatedly she dashed out, just remembering to grab her keys to the flat as she ran out the door. The bleach blonde woman excused herself as she pushed past neighbors. Jackie scarcely kept her balance, as she bolted down the steps faster than was prudent. Reaching the bottom without injury, Jackie burst thru the doors, running like a mad woman with her head swiveling searching the sky, rooftops and across the street to the dust bins where the blue ship normally would be parked when Rose visited. She spotted Mickey sprinting towards her from the opposite direction. "Mickey, it's Rose! It has to be. That bloody ship is the only thing that makes that god awful racket."

"Yeah, I know." Mickey gave Jackie a brief hug in relief that he hadn't been the only one to hear the TARDIS. Over the past four months there had been occasion when he thought he'd heard the blue police box. He'd gone searching but would end up finding nothing. Mickey never mentioned it to Jackie he hadn't wanted her to give him looks of pity or ones that she'd thought he'd lost his marbles.

As they looked around; passersbys stared bit before moving on. The TARDIS' engines were so loud at that point Mickey half expected the ship land right on top of them.

"I can hear it but where is it the blasted thing." Jackie complained with a touch of worry coloring her tone.

Mickey shrugged. "I don't know."

Just as they turned, right above Jackie and Rose's apartment building, the TARDIS appeared spinning wildly out of control. The blue box bounced off of three different buildings before she crashed into the dustbins. Jackie and Mickey had ducked as the ship flew over them. The ship seemed to groan in relief to be stationary.

Jackie and Mickey rushed over only to stop short as the door flew open and a young honey blonde haired woman came careening out.

"Yes. Fantastic... Fabulous... Fantabulous that's it. I got it right the first time. London Christmas two thousand six." The petite young woman whirled around taking in the surrounding landscape not only the buildings and humans but the residual time energy on everything. Out of the corner of her eye; Rose spotted Mickey and her Mum standing with matching expression of puzzlement.

"Mickey! Mum!" Rose shrieked and sprinted towards the pair. She tackled Mickey first giving him a quick bus on the cheek. The honey blonde quickly moved on to her mother before the Time-Lord equivalent of morning sickness could overwhelm her.

The black man's face held startelement which morphed into confused delight as he watched Jackie getting the same excerbruent treatment from the stranger. He figured the petite woman to be another stray The Doctor picked up. Not that his ex, Rose Tyler, could be considered a vagabond.

"Oh. I have so much to tell you. Oh... Oh... Oh... Now what was it. Oh yes Happy Christmas. Wait... Wait no that's not right." The honey blonde paced absentmindedly tugging, with her right hand, the waistband of the blue jeans as they slipped off her slender hips as left index finger tapped away at her left temple reminiscent of Winne-the-Pooh.

A loud bang from the TARDIS startled the two humans, the strange woman continued to walk in a oval shape pattern. The Doctor burst out of the time-space ship precisely at the moment the honey blonde exclaimed. "I got it. Congratulations, I'm pregnant. " She giggled, before her eyes rolled back and her body started wilting to the ground.

"Bloody fantastic. " The Doctor cried, sprinting past Mickey and Jackie, he caught Rose before she landed. He lifted his newly regenerated companion bridal style, mentally checking to see if any harm had come to either the time - tots or their mum. An angry huff and the feeling of impending doom alerted the Time Lord that he had some explaining to do.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2:'Tis the Season for Revelation

Disclaimer: I don't in any way own the series Doctor Who. Those are the sole property of the BBC.

Note: This has not been beta.

Chapter Two: 'Tis the Season for Revelations

The Doctor gently rubbed at the stinging pain of his abused cheek. He sat in the overstuffed chair in front telly of Jackie's flat. He would have preferred being in the TARDIS' infirmary but said time-space ship took away that option right after Lynda and Jack had disembark. The police box door slammed closed before the Doctor could make an excuse and escape back into the ship. The Doctor tried everything he could think of but the TARDIS wouldn't open. She hummed in complaint at the unnecessary rough landing, and remained closed.

So, instead of being able to check Rose over in the TARDIS infirmary like he'd wanted, the lot of them swiftly trudged back to Jackie's flat. Rose's mum nagging and shrieking all the way up and Ricky asking the same repetitive questions. Upon reaching the door, Time Lord gave the doorknob a quick sonic and headed in not bothering to wait for others to follow. He moved smoothly through the small flat to Rose's bedroom The Doctor settled the altered and deeply sleeping young woman on the single bed. The Doctor apprehensively turned to confront the infuriated human mother, unfortunately he hadn't taken into account how upset the dirty blonde woman would be with him putting some strange young woman in her daughter's bed. Hence him rubbing the extremely abuse area still.

"Right. Now Doctor are you going to explain where Rose is and who these people are?" Jackie huffed having made the unfortunate and unconscious honey blonde comfortable though still not liking that the strange girl laid in her daughter's bed under the pink comforter.

"Yeah. And who is that pregnate girl?" Mickey chimed in giving the Doctor the fish eye. He already knew who Jack was having met him in Cardiff, the other blonde woman with pigtails seemed to be attached to him, though that didn't mean much as he'd gotten the impression Jack was a player. Maybe the women were sister's and Jack had brought them on board the blue time-space ship, but that still left the question of where was Rose Tyler.

"Well that's a long story." Jack said knowing that even he didn't fully understand what had happened either back on the space station or in the TARDIS. Where normally at the end of an adventure there had always been a whirlwind of adrenalin and the three of them would barely rest before heading off to the next great adventure. These circumstance were extraordinary Rose Tyler had changed and there were other questions he himself would eventually want to ask.

The Doctor's blue eyed gaze went over the group. The slightly shell shocked Lynda looking out the window in awe at the very altered skyline of ancient London. Jack, well he could barely even stand to keep him in his sight before moving on quickly to Mickey Smith expression of displeasure. Lastly of course, Jackie Tyler's look of irritation and disapproval waiting for an explanation.

Abruptly standing the Time Lord felt at a slight disadvantage sitting he began to pace. "Well that's the thing you see. When Rose's decided to try and communicate with the TARDIS, she absorbed the Time Vortex. No Human's supposed to do that. But Rose's is always doing that. The impossible. She did it she saved me, Jack, Lynda and the entire Earth. She had all that power coursing through her, she could see all of time, space and everything in between and it was killing her." The Doctor paused the scene once again played out in his mind. That time had become fixed it could never be changed now. "She gave it up. Rose was fantastic she gave the power back to the TARDIS but somehow it changed her."

"Changed her! What ya do mean? Changed her? How?" Jackie promptly sat down on the arm of the sofa. Her heavily makeup-ed eyes tracking the Doctor's movements.

Mickey looked from the Doctor to Jack. "You don't mean the girl? The pregnant blonde girl?"

Head resting in hand, Jack gave a small nod. His thoughts were also swirling again with the information. There was to much going on he would save his question for later after Rose's was better.

"What the Vortex thingy changed my daughter's looks and made her pregnant." Jackie shrieked standing again and stepping in front of the Doctor. Though Jackie knew in the back of her mind that her daughter had already been pregnant before leaving that last time.

The Doctor suddenly stopped avoiding crashing into Jackie. He could see the human woman looked about ready to explode. "What yes… no… sort of. Yes it might have changed her looks but no of course it didn't make her pregnant. That's actually a different um… event… Anyway that's not important right now. What's important is how? How could the Time Vortex change Rose because it can't do that. I mean really that isn't suppose to happen. Cause it didn't just change her appearance. She's no longer human."

Pain once again swept through the Doctor's cheek and he leaned over the chair. He could hear Jackie's sobs through the ring in his ears.

Jackie stumbled back holding her hand as it throbbed. Tears rolled down her cheeks, the man… alien man who'd swept her daughter off to travel who knew where or when had changed her Rose. Now it wasn't just the girl's confidence and attitude but everything else as well... Just like she'd always feared. Jackie didn't recognize her little girl anymore because she wasn't there now someone new had taken her place. "Change her back. You're the Doctor, change her back. I want my Rose."

Mickey placed a comforting arm around Jackie also in an attempt to hold the blonde woman back. He would have like to take a swing at the alien man but knew that unlike Jackie or Rose he wouldn't be able to get a hit in. "Is there a way to change her?"

"No. It doesn't work that way. Unless… No there were very few Time Lords who could alter their appearance during a regeneration." The Doctor sighed. "I'm still trying to figure out how Rose was able to do it."

"You're sure that the Time Vortex can't change a person's biology." Jack asked.

"Maybe she'd always been like you." Lynda offered her attention shifting to the drama happening in the flat. She didn't know what was going on but the older woman's distress had cut through to Lynda's wonder her new environment.

"No… No… No… Rose is human. At least she had been up until she arrived back at the Game station." Doctor resumed his pacing about the small flat hands shoved into his pockets to prevent touching his now extremely sore cheek.

A soft whimper came from down the short hall. Jackie quickly went to check on the strange woman… no not strange but Rose… a very different Rose. The blonde woman sat on the edge of the bed like so many times before when her daughter was just a child. She laid a hand over Rose's forehead, the skin there hot to the touch. "Doctor... " With no response, Jackie called out again "Doctor, she's burning up."

The Doctor in short order arrived on other side of the bed. He scanned Rose with his sonic screwdriver the readings weren't looking the best. "The regeneration isn't going good. Her bodies trying to compensate for the time-tots."

"Time-tots? What's that then? An internal organ humans don't have?" Mickey inquired from the doorway.

In the background the Doctor heard a barking laugh from Jack and a snickering cough which he surmised as Lynda. In his periphery he saw Jackie rolling her eyes at the young man's idiotic question. "That's actually one of the stupidest question I've ever heard from you. Time-tots what my species refer to babies or very young children."

"Is there anything we can do?" Jackie stroke the hair from Rose's forehead.

The Doctor sat down on the other side of the bed. His gaze lifted from Rose to Jackie, a frown on his brow. "I'm not sure. I've only ever detail with one other Time Lord's regeneration and her's was simpler."

To be continued...


	3. Chapter 3: A Broken Silent Night

Disclaimer: I don't in any way own the series Doctor Who. Those are the sole property of the BBC.

A Christmas Tangle AU: "Christmas Invasion".

Chapter Three: A Broken Silent Night

The market place bustled with a few tourist and the average Londoner holiday shopper. In the crowd, Mickey set a brisk pace towards the open air vendors. The blue eyed American man beside him easily followed, in a borrowed pink jacket left open displaying a white t-shirt and black leather vest, unperturbed by the young man's hostile.

Mickey shoved his fists deeper into his winter jacket pockets. His voice drifted across to his companion. "Yeah, what kinda of Doctor is he then. If'n he can't switch Rose back. And where was he when some tosser got Rose preggers?"

Jack sighed at Mickey's persistent tirade over Rose's new look and pregnancy. The Captain owed it to Rose to get her best mate to get over both. He wasn't sure about the young man's continued denial of the obvious fact that the Rose's babies' father happened to be a nine hundred year old alien Time Lord.

Jack suspected Rose's mum knew, there had been a look in her eyes as she'd watched Mickey and the Doctor arguing over changing Rose back. The two had been ready to come to blows when the older blonde woman came between them. Jackie had shoved both out of the flat.

The Captain had followed, he saw the Doctor take the stairs up to the roof and Mickey headed down away from the complex. He'd known better than to chase after the Doctor upon seeing the stoney expression on his face. So he'd trailed after the ex, Jack hoped to get the young man to see sense and enlighten him in a way that didn't offend his intelligence.

"Mickey, it's not that the Doc has any control over it. That would be like making a butterfly turn back into a caterpillar. It's just not possible."

"Right. Of course you're going to defend him." Mickey whirled facing Jack. "Cos' I'm just not buying it. He has all those gizmos, in his blue box and not one of them can change Rose back." he spat not attempting to be quiet.

Jack smiled broadly impervious to the other man's ire. "You want to change her back I get that. The thing is I don't think the Doctor even knows how she changed. Secondly all those gizmos are in the TARDIS which if you remember isn't letting anyone in at the moment."

"Argh. Pitiful a ship you can't even open it when you need to. What's next your gonna tell me that it has feelings." The brown-eyed man grumbled walking away.

Undeterred Jack kept in step. "Hey, the old girl is very much another alien being and you better not diss her in front of the Doctor or Rose for that matter. They are really protective of the TARDIS." Jack switched gears. "Mickey you need to stop pining and waiting for Rose to get tired of traveling with Doctor."

The cogs in Mickey's head were working in double time and an eerie smirk spread over his once frowning face. "Well now Rose'll have to stay. I mean how will she be able to go gallivanting all over place especially when she's nine months pregnant possible even sooner."

Jack's expression fell and he rolled blue eyes from his peripheral he spotted a band made up of four strange looking Santa's. His sense of danger sprang to life. He made a mental note to keep alert as he became inspired. "All right now Mick's, you're just asking for trouble. Do you really think Rose is going to be deterred by a baby bump. And just where do you think she's going to deliver an alien baby without some government officials coming and taken her and the kid away to experiment on."

Mickey finally stopped grimmed faced. "This is all the Doctor's fault. Him swanning in and turning Rose's head. Now she's not even the person I grew up with and protect from bullies."

Jack commensurate with the young man, as he knew the feeling that Rose brought out, and would have attempted to comforted him if not at that moment. The holiday music hadn't ended mid song, brass trumpets sprouted flamethrower nozzle. The Captain pushed Mickey behind a cart as blue jets of flame swept over where they had been previously standing.

The shoppers and merchants scattered as stalls caught flames went up blazing. Jack pulled Mickey along with him. "Damn. Their after us." as more spouts of blue flames tracking them through the marketplace.

Jack dragged a struggling Mickey into the back of a cab. "Go! Go!" The Cabbie didn't have be told again as the deadly Santa's were drawing closer to the vehicle. "What were those things then?" Mickey huffed out his breath coming in pants.

"I don't know. But I'm positive the Doctor will." The ex-time agent's smiling facade fell, yielding to the seriousness of the situation. "Who ever they are we're leading them right to everyone. Call Jackie."

"What? What for?" Mickey asked, retrieving his cell phone from his coat pocket.

* * *

Jackie moved around her daughter's bedroom lightly touching trinkets that she'd given Rose over young life. She looked back to the honey blonde that had replaced the image of her Rose.

"I know you don't have any reason to trust since only just met. But I'll look out for her if you need to take a moment." Lynda stood in the doorway not sure what to do as the only people she knew had kind of abandoned her there in the flat.

Jackie looked over to the young woman who had burst into live along with the Doctor and his other friend. "You're not another alien are ya?" Jackie got the impression that the blonde pigtailed woman wasn't but she really didn't know anymore. Other than the Doctor atrocious manners, which certainly wasn't exclusive to Time Lords, he looked every inch human.

"What? Oh, yeah I'm human." Lynda smiled amused that she would be consider anything else. She walked over and sat down next the sleeping woman.

"All right, then. I have a few phone calls to make." Jackie eyed the woman for a moment from the doorway. Her gaze drift to the unconscious Rose. Her mind roiled at what she'd say about Rose's disappearance this time. "What a bloody mess."

Lynda sighed from where she sat looking after Rose's mum. She turned to Rose, "I don't you can hear me but you seemed to have very protective mother. It's nice to see. I'm guess she the one who gave you this locket." Lynda held up the necklace, she had found while the TARDIS had flung everyone about as the time-machine shifted time streams and went to land.

"It's a pretty thing almost like one of those ancient type of clocks I used to see on vids." Lynda remarked as she placed the delicate jewerly in the other woman hand. The sleeping woman's hand clutched into a fist around it.

"Howard, now's not a good time to come over." Jackie voice drifted into the small room. Lynda got up and looked out the door briefly to see Jackie Tlyer agitatedly walking around her living room, a now taller and green tree filling the small space. Behind that the telly gave background noise, Prime Minister Harriet Jones' voice came over the rambunctious reporters. "The Guinevere One Space Probe represents this country's unbound spirit. British craftmanship journeying out through the stars."

Behind the pigtailed blonde, Rose gave a inaudible groan and silver-gold vapor spiraled up and out an open window.

To Be Continued…


End file.
